Empire of Cricket - Season 1

The first episode of Empire of Cricket tells the story of the game in the country of its birth, England.

The English invented cricket, created its rules and a whole moral code for the game. They then exported this elegant game of bat and ball to the wider British Empire. But England began to struggle when the natives began to play the game so much better.

Empire of Cricket looks at the story of the West Indies. This second programme explains how West Indian cricketing heroes have always understood that their achievements on the field could help inspire and define an idea of West Indian identity beyond the boundary.

It reveals how cricket clubs across the Caribbean once operated a kind of sporting apartheid, with whites-only membership. White players alone were allowed to captain the national team. Black players were expected to bowl and field, but only white players were believed to be capable of mastering the skills of batting and captaincy.

From Don Bradman and Richie Benaud to Steve Waugh and Shane Warne, this programme finds out how Australia defined itself through cricketing success and went on to become the best team in the world today.

Australia's emergence as a proud, independent nation is mirrored in the rise of its cricket team. The country's first settlers turned the sport of the privileged English elite into a game for all. By the 1930s Australia had its first real hero - record-breaking batsman Don Bradman.

The story of the Indian game, from its beginnings as the sport of the English colonisers to the riches and razzmatazz of today's Indian Premier League.

The programme shows a country where cricket is the undisputed national sport, with deep connections to India's emergence as a nation through years of Empire, partition and then independence. Today, a brash new confidence on the cricket pitch reflects India's arrival as a superpower in the world.